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Starting next year, the Rolls-Royce Group and British Airways hope to test up to four airplane fuel alternatives to kerosene.

Starting next year, the Rolls-Royce Group and British Airways hope to test up to four airplane fuel alternatives to kerosene.

The companies are asking suppliers to provide fuel samples for
testing in 2009. The companies are seeking fuels that perform as well
as kerosene but emit fewer greenhouse gases. They are also taking into
account if production of the fuels will have detrimental effects on
food supplies, land use and water. Suppliers will also need to ensure
the fuels can be mass-produced and distributed around the world.

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The fuels will be tested on a Rolls-Royce RB211 engine from a
British Airways Boeing 747 at an indoor test engine bed. The companies
aren't experimenting on actual flights so that outside factors will not
affect performance and emissions. Results will be compared to that of
an engine running on kerosene, and the tests will include performance
while idling, accelerating, taking off and cruising. Testing will
finish by March 2009.

The Federal Aviation Administration and the X Prize Foundation
have also teamed up to spur innovation and investment in greener
alternatives to jet fuel. The X Prize Foundation will spend the next 14
months working with aviation experts and identify incentives for the
creation of alternative fuels and technologies. Once finalized, the
alternative fuel competition is expected to run three-eight years.

The competition will also look for fuels that are renewable, not
based on fossil fuels, and which do not affect food production or land
changes that lead to increases in greenhouse gas emissions.

Current and former X Prize awards range from $10 million to $30
million. The FAA's partnership with the X Prize Foundation is an
outgrowth of its Next Generation air traffic modernization program
aimed at doubling the capacity of the U.S. aviation system by 2025, a
goal that includes the development and use of renewable fuels.